When rod and reel fishing, the line is initially wound on the spool. The fisherman swivels the bail arm to bring it into a retracted position, and casts the line that rapidly unwinds from the spool. After casting, the line has some slack. To retrieve the line the fisherman turns the crank handle that drives the rotary drum in axial rotation. On standard reels this rotation causes the bail arm to swivel automatically and to come into a retrieval position to guide the line and to wind it onto the spool. At the beginning of the retrieval, the line generally goes on an intermediate section of the bail arm, and gradually goes around a first end of the bail arm.
We have noticed some winding flaws with this type of fishing reel caused by winding the line on the spool during its retrieval. In fact, when the line has plenty of slack, at the beginning of the retrieval, for example, part of the line located between the spool and the bail arm also has some slack, so that the first turns on the spool are often very loose and cause an irregular winding. Such irregularities in the winding may also happen while retrieving the line, during tension variations of the fishing line that may be found completely slack at some steps during retrieval.
These irregularities result mainly from the fact that, at a slackened state, the line has the tendency to again find the same shape that it had when it was wound around the reel spool before casting. There is a risk that some loops may appear on the line upstream of the reel as a result, and these loops may wind irregularly onto the spool during retrieval.
These irregularities in the winding subsequently disturb the casting operation, since they help unwind several turns of the spool at the same time and often cause tangling of the line (generally called "tangles").
Document FR 2 710 238 A describes part of a solution to this problem. According to part of a solution, we provide nip surfaces on the bail arm and the drum respectively, shaped to rest one against the other when the bail arm is in a retrieval position. While the drum is in rotation during retrieval, the line goes between the nip surfaces and is pinched and therefore becomes tight between the spool and the bail arm.
This solution is relatively effective at the beginning of the retrieval operation, that is before the line reaches the line guide roller. On the other hand, its effectiveness is not as good when the line happens to be completely loose during some subsequent steps while retrieving, and we have noticed that some loops on the line are not undone by this device.